If you’ve been keeping an eye on Active Matter but didn’t fancy committing to the “full loop” just yet, there’s a much easier on-ramp now. Gaijin Entertainment and Matter Team have released a new Active Matter demo on Steam, timed for Steam Next Fest, giving players a chance to sample the game’s harsher side without wading through every system at once.
At its core, Active Matter sits in that grim, tactical extraction-shooter space, but with a supernatural edge. You’re an operative stuck in a time loop, diving into quantum unstable zones where physics breaks, anomalies rewrite your plan mid-fight, and other players are just as dangerous as anything the multiverse throws at you.
What’s in the Active Matter Next Fest demo
This demo is a limited-time build (available until 2 March 2026), and it’s very much designed to get you into the action quickly. Progression is capped and, crucially, solo and co-op raids aren’t available in this version. Instead, the focus is on competitive modes:
- PvP raids (with anomalies, monsters, and high-value loot in the mix)
- Team battles for the Nexus, built around coordination and tactics rather than pure chaos
- Base exploration, with your progress set to carry over to the Steam release
That last point is a nice touch, because it means the time you spend learning the ropes (and making mistakes you’ll swear were “for science”) isn’t just thrown away when the demo ends.
Fire Walk monsters and anomalies are part of the pitch
The demo is also positioned as a way to experience the kinds of threats introduced in Fire Walk, the game’s first major update, which added new raids plus additional monsters and anomalies to deal with.
Early Access timing (and where you can play now)
On Steam, Active Matter is currently slated to hit Early Access in the first half of 2026, with wishlisting now open.
If you’d rather jump in immediately, an “early version” is already being sold via the Gaijin store under Gaijin Network Ltd, and it’s described as being updated based on player feedback.
One quick PC housekeeping note: the demo page also flags kernel-level anti-cheat (BattlEye), with a note that it requires manual removal after uninstall.
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